THE VAKHRUSHEVO-1 BURIAL GROUND (NOVOSIBIRSK OB REGION): MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES (ARCHAEOLOGY, ANTHROPOLOGY, PALEOGENETICS)

The article presents an example of a multidisciplinary approach implemented on previously unpublished materials of the Vakhrushevo-1 burial ground of the Andronovo (Fedorovka) culture, located on the left bank of the Upper Ob River. The object of study is the burial from mound 9, the only one of the entire complex made according to the inhumation rite. According to anthropologists and paleogeneticists, a man aged between 35–40 years was placed in the grave. As a result of the anthropological analysis, the measuring characteristics of the skull of the buried were clarified and its graphic reconstruction was made. A radiocarbon date (1735–1518 BC) was obtained for a human tooth. A molar tooth of the buried without cracks and chips, which demonstrated a high level of macroscopic preservation, was used as a material for obtaining DNA samples. The revealed variant of mtDNA (U2e1h) allows the authors to outline the western Eurasian vector of the migration flow of the Antronovo (Fedorovka) population from the territory of the southern Urals and Trans-Urals, where the carriers of the Potapovo and Sintashta cultures lived. The non-typicality of the Y-chromosome variant (RIb-M269) obtained in the studied sample determines the continuation of the search for its carriers’ origins and suggests a more complex formation of some part of the Andronovo (Fedorovka) culture carriers in the forest-steppe zone of the Ob region. Burial practice and grave goods are generally common for the Andronovo (Fedorovka) culture. However, the situation when in part of the necropolis the Andronovo (Fedorovka) people made the burials according to the rite of cremation, and the other part — according to the rite of inhumation, is still problematic. At the same time, sometimes there are so-called “birital” burials, where both the corpse and the ashes of the deceased were placed in one grave. Based on the data obtained, it is assumed that the explanation of such a phenomenon lies in the origins of the migration of Andronovo (Fedorovka) population to the east, which is indicated, first of all, by paleogenetic analysis. It is obvious that the example of the multidisciplinary approach to the source analysis determines a more real and close to reality reconstruction model of ethno-cultural genesis.